The new film for Mirinda will almost certainly surprise you, and for once, there’s at least a kernel of truth behind that click-baity statement. Entirely missing are Asin’s smart-aleck observations and pranks. Gone too is last year’s surreal colour saturated spectacle. Instead, we are served up sombre images of children, some close to tears, writing open letters to their parents, relating just how pressurised they feel to perform, considering exam season is around the corner.

It doesn’t feel like a branded content initiative for any brand, let alone Mirinda and the logo and #releasethepressure only show up in the last frame. See the film here:

A shift in strategy, a quick leap aboard the “purpose-driven” bandwagon, or something entirely different? We turned to Vipul Prakash, VP - beverage category, PepsiCo for some answers.

The film is totally different from everything else done by Mirinda. What inspired such a radical shift?

Our attempt with all our brands is to resonate with different audiences. We believe we’ve done a good job building these brands but we need to make a difference in society; each brand ought to have a purpose of its own. Not just CSR, but something that progresses society and our target audience. This led us to what are the issues they face and is there anything the brand can do?

We realised there’s a huge worry, concern and tension around exams. It’s true across the world but perhaps more so in India and other developing countries. We spoke to teenagers — kids between 14 and 18 — and they said ‘we realise we need to do well but the pressure that’s put on us goes against us doing well.’ Even parents realise what they are doing is excessive but get carried away.

We felt this was the right time to do this. 20 years ago, it was all about getting into engineering or medicine. But today, alternative careers are emerging. So while marks are still important, is the pressure as important? We may not be able to provide the answers, but we decided to first start talking about this. The line has changed to no pressurepanti only pagalpanti: a break where you can refresh yourself, laugh or play with your parents. A happy frame of mind helps people study better; how can we create a positive environment? Our PET bottle caps talk about releasing the pressure but that’s more tactical.

How did you go about doing this? And why didn’t you use real teenagers?

Most of the people in the film are actual teenagers and parents. We just added a few actors to hold the audience. We took some creative licenses with the film but our bottles in the next few weeks and our microsite will feature authentic letters.

We invited teenagers to write an open letter to their parents and then got their parents to read these. This was for consumers to realise there is a problem and Mirinda is talking about it. We will then move into a pledge that can be taken on the site, at modern trade and mall activations, to release the pressure. In the first week of March, our TV campaign will hit where Mirinda will ask you to take a break: no pressurepanti only paagalpanti. It’s a light-hearted way to address a serious problem.

But how are you going to connect the seriousness of this film which addresses issues as grave as student suicides to paagalpanti?

Give us two weeks and we will show you the TV commercial where it will happen. To a marketer, the challenge is how true are you to the issue and the brand. Sometimes there’s a conflict. We were clear we have to be true to the issue; if we didn’t believe we could do it with the Mirinda tonality, we wouldn’t have done it.

You are reacting to the phase where we are getting people conscious of the issue. We are very confident about the POV that Mirinda and a little bit of madness actually solves it. The success will depend on two things: A) Do the consumers believe this is an issue? We are 99% sure the answer is yes. And B) Does Mirinda deserve a POV and is it a reasonable point of view? That is something we will get to know in the next 30 days. If either of these fail, the campaign won’t work but everything so far suggests it’s just a break of madness that teenagers are looking for. None of them talk about exams not being important or that “my parents are against me.” Every letter says I know they want me to do well and love me, but “thoda sa mujhe break de do.” If the message was let your kids go; it doesn’t matter how they do, then Mirinda was not the right brand.

Do you have children of your own and how did they react to this?

The Mirinda team had actually gone to the kids of people in our executive committee and said ‘write a letter to your parents.’ They recorded those and played them at our annual sales conference. I can’t tell you the applause it got! The concept resonated so much with our kids.I would like to believe I am one of the low-pressure parents. But then listening to our own children, there was an immediate connect. I can assure you my kids are not a tortured lot, but even they are feeling this pressure. All the kids wanted was to have more fun with us or go for a pizza party. It’s where we got confidence regarding the promo.

Was it also because exam season leads into vacations and summer, traditionally your most important quarter?

That was another reason, but not the only one. We have a full 360 degree campaign for this which will roll out. We even have some celebrities talking about how they will release the pressure on their kids. Shoojit Sircar who shot this film will also talk about it. We are also expecting some organic conversation to take over.